Grayson finds his way to the mike for hockey

By Clark Leonard

Published: Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 05:19 PM.

When he first arrived on campus, he was just hoping to learn more about his craft alongside the team. It turned out the team needed a play-by-play announcer, a spot he has filled for most of the season.

Kendall Grayson began to take an interest in hockey when the Carolina Hurricanes made the Stanley Cup Finals in 2002.

He later played hockey at Extreme Ice Center in Indian Trail in seventh grade. But when he suffered a concussion, he decided to find another outlet for his passion for the sport.

Growing up in Shelby, not many shared his hockey enthusiasm. That experience, in a way, led to his current field of study at the University of Alabama.

“Through broadcasting, I could bring the game of hockey to other people,” Grayson said.

This week Grayson, a 2012 Kings Mountain High graduate is doing so on a large scale, as one of the broadcasters for the American Collegiate Hockey Association Men’s Division 3 tournament in Springfield, Mo. The event began Tuesday and runs through Saturday, and he broadcast four games each of the first two days.

His broadcasts can be accessed at www.fasthockey.com for $8 per game.

The opportunity came about when Grayson, a freshman who does play-by-play radio broadcasts of the Alabama Frozen Tide club hockey team, inquired about working his team’s games at nationals. He was informed that teams can’t send their own broadcasters because the tournament charges for the broadcasts.

Then, Grayson contacted the association’s commissioner about his desire to be on the air for the tournament and was selected.

“It’s just a great opportunity for me,” Grayson said. “It’s going to be really helpful going forward as I can learn from this experience.”

It’s also different because the tournament games will have video along with his audio broadcasting.

He began gaining experience in the field by shadowing Charlotte Checkers play-by-play announcer Jason Shaya, which then turned into an internship where he did statistical work and intermission reports during his senior year at Kings Mountain.

“That was good experience for me to be on the air like that,” Grayson said.

Grayson said being well-versed on the names of opponents is one of the biggest challenges. He has thoroughly enjoyed his time at Alabama so far, particularly when parents of players let him know how much they enjoy his broadcasts.

“For me, that’s the biggest compliment I can get,” Grayson said.

When he first arrived on campus, he was just hoping to learn more about his craft alongside the team. It turned out the team needed a play-by-play announcer, a spot he has filled for most of the season.